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A new DVD of The Jungle Book rolls out in October as a 40th anniversary edition. Some of the participants from Walt's last animated feature remember:

Composer Richard Sherman: “The first meeting my brother Bob and I had on Jungle Book many years ago was actually, we were called into Walt's office with several other people, Woolie Reitherman, Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnson and Larry Clemmons and a whole bunch of the regulars at the studio.

We were all staff people and did our various specialties, but Walt asked us… He sat us all down in his office, looked at us and said, ‘How many of you guys have read The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling?’ And of course nobody raised their hand. Nobody. So sheepishly I said, ‘Well, I saw a movie with Sabu, the Indian kid.’ He said, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, but you didn't read the book.’ I said, ‘No, no, no.’ ‘Good. We're going to tell the story of The Jungle Book the Disney way.’

And with that he sat down and he told us how he wanted to see this film. He acted out every part. It was an amazing thing. To hear Walt Disney tell a story was like nothing. It was transfixing. So basically, no, I have yet to read The Jungle Book.”

Update: Jungle Book is currently unspooling at the El Capitan Theatre on Hollywood Blvd. Animation World Network and Box Office Mojo cover the panel discussion that took place at the movie's opening here and here...

Indian animation and animated features, India tells us, is taking off:

The number of professionals employed by the Indian animation industry in 2006 is estimated at 16,500. This figure is forecast to exceed 26,000 by 2010.

Laika, the animation studio headquartered in Portland, Oregon, is apparently ramping up for the long haul as it names two new executives to its roster:

Indie animation house Laika has tapped former Lucasfilm and Hanna-Barbera exec Alan Keith as its new chief financial officer and veep business operations.

Artist Travis Knight has also been promoted to VP of animation.

Fake Steve Jobs. CNBC reports that the man who pretended to be Steve Jobs -- Disney's #1 stockholder -- has been outted, and the blogosphere is no longer agog. Somehow I missed the agogness.

Source: www.fakesteve.blogspot.com Fake Steve Jobs gripped the internet for months: Who was he? Why was he doing it? Was it really Jobs himself? Or someone else? It was a terrific mystery up until the day New York Times reporter Brad Stone unmasked Dan Lyons, a writer for Forbes, as the REAL Fake Steve Jobs last month. It was a bummer. The magic of Fake Steve Jobs was his anonymity. Attaching a face to the fake obliterated the illusion.

Paddington Bear, up until now a character in books and a British animated teevee series, is making the Big Move:

Paddington Bear is to make his movie debut in a live-action film comedy.

David Heyman, producer of the Harry Potter movie franchise, will produce the first cinema adaptation of Michael Bond's classic children's stories.

Have a glorious weekend.